wildshores.blogspot.com Archives - 09 April 2012, Monday

I'll be giving a FREE lunchtime talk about our shores at NUS next week. No need to swim, no need to dive! Ordinary people can experience much of Singapore's amazing marine life on the intertidal shore. Otters, wild dolphins, sea turtles! Nemos, sea snakes, living corals and more. From...

This is the most 'pregnant' seahorse I've ever seen! I was on Sisters Island to help Mei Lin and her Giant Clam Team. We also saw all kinds of corals and other marine life. When I first saw the Tiger-tail seahorse (Hippocampus comes ), I didn't even realise it was a papa. Here's some ...

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I'll be giving this talk to share my experience running the wildsingapore resources which includes websites, blogs, flickr and facebook. Together, these have garnered nearly 4 million hits over the last 7 years. I will share what I have been doing and some of the results, highlight wh...

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The Deep Tunnel Sewerage System phase 1 will be launched next week. The local media articles focus on the less squirmy aspects such as the Changi Water Reclamation Plant. But where does the sewage actually end up? As you might have guessed ... into the sea. What is the Deep Deep Tunne...

I'll be giving this talk to share my experience running the wildsingapore resources which includes websites, blogs, flickr and facebook. Together, these have garnered nearly 4 million hits over the last 7 years. I will share what I have been doing and some of the results, highlight wh...

Related:

How nice to see Knobbly sea stars in spawning position today at Cyrene! I was out with a large contingent of TeamSeagrass volunteers for seagrass monitoring and to help Siti with her seagrass experiment there. Here's another Knobbly sea star on tip toes! I first observed this behaviou...

It's the school holidays and the Naked Hermit Crabs are glad to share Chek Jawa with families. I had great fun with this enthusiastic group of keen-eyed kids! We saw lots of birds today: hornbills, eagles, jungle fowl and more! We met up with them at Ubin Town and took the same van. S...

This event is open to the public. The island-wide Horseshoe Crab (HSC) Population and Distribution Survey will start at 11am at various parts of Singapore. This is a follow-up to the last survey held in March 2009. It involves a search for the 2 species of HSCs found in Singapore and ...

I'm back for the last days of the Expedition and it's a hive of activity at the work stations when I arrive in the afternoon of the second last day. There's frenzied work on taking DNA vouchers, with phototaking, sorting and preserving going on all at the same time. And more field tri...

Our horseshoe crabs are threatened by abandoned drift nets, habitat loss and other human impacts. Horseshoe crab entangled in an abandoned net at Changi. The Nature Society (Singapore) Horseshoe Crab Rescue team has been working on this issue for some time and is doing a survey on hor...

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A new coffee table book called 'Wetlands in the City' was also launched at the event. It is a joint collaboration between NParks and Dr Chua Ee Kiam, a prolific nature photographer cum writer, and a long time volunteer with NParks. Featuring 360 vivid and stunning photos of the wetlan...

I didn't realise this snail is considered rare! Thanks to ID help from readers, I learnt that this is a Wentletrap , a Dutch word which means 'spiral staircase'. The elegant shell does indeed resemble one! Some species are believed to eat sea anemones, which is perhaps why I saw it on...

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Exciting seashore activities for kids are lined up for the March school holidays! Lots of fun ways to discover and enjoy Singapore's shores and learn more about our marinelife! Kids having a closer look at Mama wild boar and her piglet during the free Chek Jawa boardwalk tour by the N...

Exciting seashore activities for kids are lined up for the March school holidays! Lots of fun ways to discover and enjoy Singapore's shores and learn more about our marinelife! Kids having a closer look at Mama wild boar and her piglet during the free Chek Jawa boardwalk tour by the N...

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We saw the elusive Mangrove pitta today at Pasir Ris mangroves! We are very lucky, Alyce says, because she has been here many times specially to look for it and this is the first time she has seen it! It's the Naked Hermit Crab's first public walk at Pasir Ris mangroves and we are del...

A tiny snail that I've never seen before! And more stuff I'm seeing for the first time! On a rather 'beat-up' Seletar shore, distracting us from a search for anemones. Here's a look at the underside of the snail. It has a dark 'door' or operculum. The animal is pale with yellow spots ...

Today I had the pleasure of sharing Sisters Island with a very lively team from Asia Pacific Breweries hosted by NParks. Of course, we celebrate the trip with BEER! Immediately! Our first teeny tiny encounter is with a Strawberry slug that is often seen in Solitary fan seaweeds . I co...

Despite the rainy weather, a large crowd of volunteers with the NParks Conservation Division gathered to listen to some exciting developments in our wild places. Today, we focused on many marine issues with updates on mangroves at Pulau Tekong, work on the marine biodiversity survey, ...

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Previously known only from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mannar (Fricke, 2002), it is recorded from Singapore waters for the first time here. As it has not been previously recorded from this part of the world, its presence in Singapore might possibly have been from introductions vi...

Plans to expand Downtown East next to Pasir Ris mangroves and along Pasir Ris shores were just announced . A new resort will be built at the current site of Escape Theme Park. The current Costa Sands Resort will be replaced by a water theme park which will be twice its current size . ...

Plans to expand Downtown East next to Pasir Ris mangroves and along Pasir Ris shores were just announced . A new resort will be built at the current site of Escape Theme Park. The current Costa Sands Resort will be replaced by a water theme park which will be twice its current size . ...

Unlike Sungei Buloh, we can explore the boardwalk at Pasir Ris in the evening! And encounter strange behaviour generally only seen near sunset and at night. Today for the first time, I saw a water monitor deep in a hole! What is going on?! Just as I started my little stroll on the boa...

Sungei Buloh is otterly delightful! It is one of the few places where ordinary people have a good chance of spotting these marvelous creatures. I recently made several hurried visits to the Reserve to try to get better photos of the beautiful mangroves here. And saw lots of interestin...

It was most inspiring to attend Prof Timothy Beatley 's talk on "Biophilic cities – Bringing Nature and Urban Together"! He shared wonderful stories about "the magical side" of urban living and the importance of placing nature in the centre of cities, what he calls "Biophilic Cities"....

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had our first walk at Chek Jawa for 2012 and what a great crowd we had! All of us gather for the traditional group photo at the top of Jejawi Tower on a gorgeous blue sky day! It's so much easier to get a nice group photo by hiding behind a child. I should do this more often. Before w...

Our Southern Islands featured in Singapore magazine! Thanks to Jacqueline Chow, I learnt that our beautiful Southern Islands were featured in Singapore , a magazine of the Singapore Internation... Mangrove celebrations at Sungei Buloh It's mangrove mania this weekend to celebrate Worl...

My first time seeing this hermit crab at Tanah Merah! It looks like Clibanarius virescens and so far, I've only seen it once at Sisters Island! Although there are still signs of the oil spill that happened in 2010, there's lots of life here! I also saw other special hermit crabs, and ...

How did the construction of the boardwalk affect the shores at Berlayar Creek? I decided to find out today! How nice to see many large carpet anemones still on the shore! I also quickly monitored the seagrasses here. I came across 10 of these Haddon's carpet anemones (Stichodactyla ha...

What's this curious little blob next to a tiny batch of eggs on a seagrass blade? Might be a slug of some kind? I always see something strange and new on every shore trip! Yesterday, I was on a lovely seagrassy trip with Siti and Dawn at Chek Jawa. There's a bloom of Sea lettuce green...

Thanks to Jacqueline Chow, I learnt that our beautiful Southern Islands were featured in Singapore , a magazine of the Singapore International Foundation. What a gorgeous article highlighting all my favourite islands! The article highlights the many things to see and do on various isl...